District News Roundup

The Whitman Middle School in Yonkers, N.Y., was closed this month
after a health official judged the building an immediate hazard to the
653 7th and 8th graders who attended school in it. The building was
closed despite the school district's contention that it could keep the
building hazard-free until the school year ended on June 27.

The dispute began in April when the district, complying with a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency requirement, inspected all its
buildings for the presence of friable, or crumbling, asbestos. The
inspection showed that at the Whitman school, extensive work would be
required to remove the asbestos. Since the material could not be
removed by the June 28 deadline, the district would have been required
to inform the community and school personnel.

The district superintendent, Joan Raymond, elected to tell the
community immediately, as soon as she knew that asbestos was present.
But her plan to employ special safety measures and keep the building
open was opposed by the community, which asked the county health
department to inspect again.

The county inspector, who took samples from tiles, said the building
must be closed within seven days if the cafeteria and the auditorium
could be closed, sooner if they could not. That wasn't possible, so Ms.
Raymond closed the school immediately.

"We maintain that we could have kept that building hazard-free until
June 27 if we'd been given a chance," said Devorah Heller, coordinator
of information services for the district. "But it was not to be."

The students and teachers were reassigned to two other buildings and
were scheduled to resume classes May 11. The Whitman school will be
closed for about a year for a removal program expected to cost about $2
million, Ms. Heller said.

A school district in Minnesota is considering closing for the month
next January to save half of the $90,000 that it did not receive when
district voters refused to support a 5-mill increase in local tax
levies.

According to Superintendent Kenneth R. Helling of the 430-student
Karlsbad school district, the tax-levy increase would have raised
property taxes by an estimated 10 percent. He said shutting down
schools for January was being considered along with other options
including starting later in the year and ending earlier and adopting a
four-day school week.

The proposal to close in January has several advantages over other
options, according to Mr. Helling.

He said that the district could save more on energy costs; that the
loss of class time and days would be less noticeable; and that the
shutdown would cause less hardship for nonteaching employees, such as
bus drivers, who could receive unemployment compensation.

Schools would add 30 minutes to the regular school day, he said.

The principal of a Massachusetts high school this month suspended 450
students for walking out of class to protest budget cuts. He then
reacted to the cuts by staging a rally of his own that attracted 5,000
students.

The students at Brockton High School left classes and marched on
city hall to protest Mayor Paul Studenski's plans to lay off 180
teachers and eliminate the after-school sports program to help balance
the city's budget.

Robert Reagan, the principal of the 5,100-student school, said the
students who staged the walkout were suspended for five days.

Mr. Reagan said he did not approve of the unofficial rally, but he
agreed with the students' right to express themselves on the budget
issue. He then scheduled a rally (which the mayor attended) and allowed
students out of class one hour early to attend it.

Action on the budget is at a standstill because the mayor, who has
sole authority to make spending recommendations, subsequently got sick.
The City Council may only accept or reject the mayor's proposals.

Vol. 02, Issue 34

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.